Leg of lamb advice?

[FortunesFave]

I don't usually cook whole joints....I thought I'd cook this leg of lamb slowly in the oven but all the recipes I can find include onions, garlic and wine. I don't want that...I don't particularly like meat roasted in wine etc.

Can I just put olive oil, salt and rosemary on it and cook it slowly? Any other advice?

Thank you!

Yes you can. Do you have a big pot with a lid?

If so, put in the pot, add your salt, rosemary etc and then pop it in the oven on a hotvheat for 30/ 40 minutes with no lid.

Then lid on, turn the heat down and leave it.

Yes you can, I'd follow the instructions here but leave out the garlic

www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/techniques/how-prepare-leg-lamb-video

Absolutely, it will be delicious. Make sure you seal it first in a hot pan, then pop in a roasting dish, make puncture holes in it with a sharp knife and pop a piece of garlic and one of rosemary in each hole, season well and cover with copious amounts of foil. It will be fab!

Thank you all! I'm not much of a cook and only make the things I know well....roast chicken is easy and I make lovely roast potatoes but I don't want this to go wrong so this is fab thank you.

I do have a big pot with a lid..suitable for use in the oven.

Using the pot with the lid means you'll get loads of delicious juices for making gravy. Yum!

I just use a roasting tin cover tightly with foil.

Me too - leg of lamb can be quite quickly cooked and be lovely and tender. I prefer slow cooking for shoulder where there is more fat that long, slow cooking renders off. You can also replace wine with stock with some lemon juice added to replace the acidity wine has.

Instead of the more hands on searing the joint in a pan before roasting, you can just do the first 20 mins in the oven at a high temperature, then turn the oven down and cover the joint if your recipe tells you to.

@IstandwithJackieWeaver

Me too - leg of lamb can be quite quickly cooked and be lovely and tender. I prefer slow cooking for shoulder where there is more fat that long, slow cooking renders off. You can also replace wine with stock with some lemon juice added to replace the acidity wine has.

How quickly? I can't remember how much it weighs but your average leg of lamb...maybe 3 hours or something?

I'd put a small amount of stock, (or water with stock powder) in with the meat at the start of cooking, to help keep the meat tender.

@IstandwithJackieWeaver yes, that's what i do...

I usually do this recipe, obviously if you don't like the onion don't do the sauce. It's a slow roast with herbs and garlic. www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/british/roast-lamb-with-garlic-and-rosemary-and-rosemary-and-onion-sauce

@FortunesFave - I use Jamie Oliver's timings from his Naked Chef book. It's something like 20 mins at high temp then 13 mins per lb for medium so it's surprisingly quick. A 2kg leg will take an hour and a quarter. When you rest the joint afterwards it will stay hot for a long time as it's on the bone so if you cover it you've plenty of time to do your roast potatoes if you have the one oven.

[quote IstandwithJackieWeaver]@FortunesFave - I use Jamie Oliver's timings from his Naked Chef book. It's something like 20 mins at high temp then 13 mins per lb for medium so it's surprisingly quick. A 2kg leg will take an hour and a quarter. When you rest the joint afterwards it will stay hot for a long time as it's on the bone so if you cover it you've plenty of time to do your roast potatoes if you have the one oven.[/quote]
Thanks so much! You've condensed what I needed to know!

It will taste amazing. I put a trivet of veg down to protect it from the heat. This melts and forms a delicious gravy.
Season it well and put half a cup of water over the veg underneath. Seal the joint with greaseproof paper then foil and low oven for ages (up to 5 hours for a big joint).

It falls off the bone.

Leave it attached to the lamb

@Easterbunnyishoppingmad

Leave it attached to the lamb

Too late!

@purplebagladylovesgin

It will taste amazing. I put a trivet of veg down to protect it from the heat. This melts and forms a delicious gravy. Season it well and put half a cup of water over the veg underneath. Seal the joint with greaseproof paper then foil and low oven for ages (up to 5 hours for a big joint).

It falls off the bone.

Do you mean you layer some veg on the base of the cooking tray and place the lamb on top? Things like sweet potatoes etc?

i wouldn't do the veg layer
it will contaminate the juices so meaning a less rich, lovely gravy.
you should be able to make gravy just with juice, water from cooking the veg and a little bit of cornflour to thicken

@Antiqueanniesmagiclanternshow

i wouldn't do the veg layer it will contaminate the juices so meaning a less rich, lovely gravy. you should be able to make gravy just with juice, water from cooking the veg and a little bit of cornflour to thicken

Yes probably....I do like basic flavours I must admit.

yes you can.
you can add extra flavour by cutting pockets and putting in garlic and herbs.
rub with butter/oil and salt.
I like putting it on a bed of veg (onion, carrot, peppers, tomatoes) and a little water/stock.

no wine, I don't like wine.

I usually put some water in the bottom of the tray and cover with foil for the first part of cooking. Towards the end (last 1/3rd?) remove foil, top up water. Use any left over water for gravy with veggie water. Can put some garlic and rosemary in scored holes on top if you want some flavour.

Contaminate the juices?! They'll add flavour and colour. If you roughly chop a carrot or two and quarter an onion, they'll contribute to the juices. Depending on whether they are just nice and soft or burned once the joint is cooked you can either mush them up into your gravy or take them out.

Yes, I chop celery, carrots, onions up into 2cm chunks and make a thick layer on the roasting pan. Throw in half a cup of water. The Seasoned meat goes on top. Then I tuck it in with a square of greaseproof paper then seal the whole pan with tight foil. This make a hot steamy environment for the roast and makes your gravy at the same time.

Towards the end of a very long roasting, I remove the lamb, pour/scrape the veg juices into a saucepan and then return the lamb without cover into hot oven to crisp the outer fat.

This part is last minute; To the juices in the pan I add some boiling cooking water from the cooked veg to go with the meal. I mash it up with a potato masher to get max flavour out of the caramelised veg, then pour through a sieve. Discard the mashed sieved veg and retain the liquid. This if left for 10 mins it will allow the excess fat to rise and can be skimmed off. I now cheat! I bring the remaining liquid up to the boil and stir in good quality gravy granules.

Always tastes amazing. Don't tell anyone I cheat with gravy granules!

@purplebagladylovesgin that sounds fantastic. How long do you slow cook for?

Another leg cooking novice.